New build

[krazy k]

I'm thinking of putting together a new build for no other purpose than crunching. Bragging rights....not anywhere on my list.

I am an AMD guy, through and through, but since this is all about crunching it's like drinking wine on a date with your personal trainer. I may have choke it down, but in the end it's all about the points. (That analogy worked out pretty good huh?)

TR suggests the i7-3930k, but Fry's doesn't seem to carry that one. (I can only get what Fry's retails, think gift cards). Are the i7 965 and 3930 compatible? I would just have to switch mobo's should they not be.

The mobo isn't that important. Lots of PCIe slots for GPUs and that should be about it. How about the X79A-GD65 by MSI? Memory...no idea what Intel requires for this chipset.

Power is always a concern, and as such ATI has the better point/watt. Is that thing where you can turn a 5950 into a 5970 still around? Those cards getting long in the tooth, or still very potent in today's crunching. What about the 6000 series?

Power supply. I've been having good luck with Corsair lately and I can continue to ride that as long as I can. Don't need to much to start with as I have the Tt W0158RU stashed away for when I go big time.

Case. Smaller the better, but enough to keep it cool. I have my working machine in a HAF-X and that seems to be really good. I like the wheels and the filters.

Drives, peripherals, OS and the other stuff I can take care of.

I'll take any suggestions and recommendations that 'yous guys' can offer.

[Fire$torm]

i7 965 is socket LGA 1366 and i7-3930k is socket LGA 2011 so they are cannot use the same MB. Also MB selection for 1366 is thinning out, which equals expensive, as the 1366 is at the end of Its life cycle. Lastly, for the money Sandy Bridge-E CPUs blows the doors off any 1366 with same core count and clock.

[zombie67]

Even a 4 core/8 thread SB is freaking awesome. It is smokin' fast. And if it still isn't fast enough, you can OC the hell out of it.

[DrPop]

Hi Krazy, the most bang for the buck on the i7's are certainly with the i7 Sandy Bridge series - that is, socket LGA 1155. Take a look at the i7 2600K - easily O/Cs up into the high 4.xx GHz - (4.7-4.8GHz on air is very common. Guys hit 5GHz on water cooling). Mobos are a lot cheaper than the i7 Sandy Bridge-E series (socket LGA 2011). There is a lower priced quad core (8 with HT) SB-E CPU coming out that would easily take on the 2600K if you want the future upgrade-ability to get a six core SB-E later. However, you will pay more for the socket 2011 mobo, so only you could tell if that's worth it or not...
Do you have any specific requirements (other than buying through Fry's) any particular projects you want it to score real high in, or things like that?
Something a few of the guys here have done if you like AMD stuff is to go the dual CPU server mobos with the high core count server CPUs. However, that will certainly cost more than an i7 Sandy Bridge setup, so you'd have to see if that was worth the extra to you.

[krazy k]

This was kinda what I was looking for. Sure the older processor will be slower, but is that premium for the newest worth paying for? Never really is, at least for me.

I don't need it to score high in any project, except the current one that is paying the most. I think that I will take a look and see what they have on the shelves in the next couple of days and post a list here.